Return of The Cowboy
by Blue Arashi
Summary: Spike's returned to the Bebop to find many things have changed. And if it wasn't Spike's guardian star that died out than whose was it? And why is there a bounty on Jet's head?
1. Conversations

Return Of the Cowboy

"Bang." Spike said before falling to the ground. The men outside of the destroyed building stood in a state of uncertainty and shock at the fallen form. Was he really dead? 

High above in the darkness of space somebody's guardian star flickered before dying out completely. The guardian star of a cowboy.

*** 

"When you left I-" Faye began still not quite able to grasp the fact that Spike was indeed sitting across from her. "I didn't know what to do. I, I heard you talking to Jet before you left. Telling him the story about the tiger striped cat and I knew you were referring to yourself somewhat. When you said that Julia was dead, and, and how the tiger striped cat kept coming back, I-" Faye broke off as her eyes filled with tears. She had become accustomed to the tears.

After Spike left to fight Vicious she had cried uncontrollably. She couldn't figure out why she was so hurt and… afraid. "I thought I would never see you again. I thought you were going to die. I thought- after the way I talked about you to Jet earlier that day. I said that you were nothing but trouble. But on the inside I was worried. I've always worried about you." Faye walked around the coffee table and sat down next to Spike on the beat up couch. "Please. Say something. I just, I, I wanna hear your voice." Faye was slowly breaking down.

Spike had been sitting on the couch silently listening to Faye. He was still in disbelief at the fact that he was alive. He wasn't supposed to be here. He was supposed to be with Julia. The tiger striped cat wasn't supposed to come back after the white female cat died.

"Where is Jet?" Spike asked as he realized that Faye was the only person he had seen since returning to the Bebop.

"Spike-" Faye began quietly, "Um… Jet's gone. He-"

"Where?" Spike asked, accidentally cutting off Faye's explanation. 

"Um… he, he left a couple weeks after you died, uh, I mean-"

"It's okay." Spike stated in his soothing voice. He could understand how Faye felt. He had been believed dead for four months now.

"I mean after you left. He tried to, to go on like nothing was wrong but, you could tell that he, he tried, he became quite. He just cleaned and cleaned and trimmed those bonsai of his. He wouldn't talk. It was like he became a ghost of himself. He left. He said he couldn't stay here anymore, he said I could have the ship." Faye stopped and tried to wipe away the tears that were sliding down her face.

Spike placed a hand on her leg and she jumped. "I'm sorry." He stated as he moved his hand.

Faye reached out o touch his hand. It was still hard for her to believe that he was there. Alive and well, more or less. She slowly lifted her arm and lightly placed her hand on the side of Spikes face. Faye's actions surprised Spike even though he didn't let it show on his face.

Faye gently stroked his face. "I can't believe you're real." 

Spike placed his hand on top of hers. He had the intentions of removing it but his actions were halted as Faye moved her face closer to his. Their faces were less than three inches apart when she stopped.

"Your eyes really are two different colors." She said. The statement made Spike think about Julia. His heart hurt at the thought of her. Why did he have to keep coming back? He wasn't supposed to come back this time.

"I hadn't realized even after you pointed it out before you, you… left. I was too busy listening to the voice in the back of my head, the one that said that you were telling me these things because you weren't planning on coming back."

Spike removed Faye's hand and she moved back allowing them to have their own space. "You know Edward came back. She heard about what happened. I don't know how but you know her. She came back but she was just as bad as Jet." Faye became quiet for a moment as the tears started to flow again. "You know I actually miss being called Faye-Faye." Faye stated with a slight chuckle. 

"Where is she?" Spike asked he didn't look at her as she spoke. They both stared out in front of them. 

"She's gone too. Um, not too long after she came back she went in the back. She was back there for along time, you know Jet and me had left to go half heartily look for a bounty, when I went back there to get her… I don't know what she was doing. She must have been watering those damn trees for Jet, but she had the CD player plugged in and by the time I found her it was too late. She knew it was dangerous! she wasn't dumb, I-" Faye stopped and took a deep breath before continuing. "Poor Ein. He's just been lying in the room where she was found. He won't move. I have to go give him food and water everyday because he won't even get up to eat. 

This ship has been full of depression."

Spike sat in deep thought. He couldn't believe such drastic changes had occurred in the short amount of time that he was gone.

Jet was gone, Edward was dead, Ein was depressed, and Faye, Poor Faye was left to try and hold everything together.

How sad. Poor Ein and Ed… Please review.


	2. Suprise Suprise

Hello everyone!! Yeah I'm back and I'm so sorry for the extra long time that it took me to update. You see it would have been up weeks ago but my dumb ass cousin deleted it. 

Well, n e ways here is chapter two…

_Knock, knock. _

Faye stood outside of Spikes room waiting for him to answer the door.

"What." He asked as he emerged from out of the room. He looked his morning worst with his hair lop sided and his pajamas extraordinarily wrinkled.

"Breakfast is ready so get it while it's hot." Faye replied trying to ignore the look on Spikes face.

"What are you wearing?" Spike asked with a smile appearing on his lips. He was eyeballing Faye from head to toe and trying to keep from laughing at the full waitress outfit she was wearing. She even had the orthopedic shoes and hair net. 

Faye tried to hold in her anger before replying. "Bounty hunting was paying the bills so I had to get a real job." 

"You doing an honest days work. A lot has changed since I was gone." 

"Shut up and go eat. I have to feed Ein then go." She stated while heading off down the hallway. 

Faye entered the room to find Ein the same as always, lying on the floor. His eyes were open and he was looking at her but he didn't show any sign of consciousness. "Ein. Ein, breakfast." Faye said to the dog while his eyes followed her as she walked into the room. 

She leaned down and picked the dog up into her arms. After everything that had happened Faye had actually started to enjoy Ein's company. Probably because it was the only company she had.   

She hand fed him until he would eat no more then placed a small bowl of water near him. After making sure he was alright she grabbed her purse and walked out of the room. She passed by Spike on her way out to see him woofing down his food as if it were the first thing he'd eaten in two weeks. It would have to take her a while to get used to seeing him after thinking he was dead for so long. After waving bye she climbed into her ship and took off.

*~*~*~*

By the time she climbed back in the Bebop she was cold, wet, and pissed off. After working in that damn restaurant for eight hours she started to walk down the street in the pouring rain to were she had parked her ship when a guy grabbed here. Of course she fought him off but only after getting a busted lip and soaking wet. She came home to an empty ship and a nagging feeling that she knew the guy she had barely escaped from. Whoever it was he was pretty strong.  

Spike strolled into the 'living room' of the ship and plopped down on the couch. "Here…" He started as he went to hand her a bag full of Chinese food when he realized that she wasn't in festive spirits. "What happened?" He questioned cautiously. 

She explained to him what happened and how she found the guy to be familiar yet she didn't know from were. He had been lurking in the shadows and had kept his face covered.

"Probably some bastard I caught a few years ago whose come back for revenge." Faye said while picking up the container of beef and broccoli. 

"Maybe you shouldn't be by yourself then. If the guys gone through all this to find you and now attack you then he most likely wants you dead." Spike replied before turning on the TV. They came in in the middle of Big Shots. Punch and Judy were in the middle of profiling the new bounty head. 

_"This next one is worth 50,000,000, woolongs." _ Judy said. 

_"Wow, 50,000,000 that's a lot of money for the person who catches him." _ Punch said stating the obvious. 

_"And to top it off he's one of you guys cowboys!" _Judy replied excitedly. 

Spike and Faye froze in shock when they saw the picture that came up on the screen. 

Well that's all for now and I promise (I put it on my right hand) you'll have the next chap within two weeks. Lata. 

P.S did you like the cliffy?????


	3. Deja vu

Konnichiwa, Watakushi wa… is back!! My nihongo is rusty. But n e ways I got my first review from the 2nd chapter of this fic a few minutes ago (thanx Tiger Tiger2) and I just wanted to start on the next chap right away. You also had some good guesses in that review of yours so let's see if you were right.

Spike and Faye sat in shock looking at the television screen. It was awhile before Faye was even able to pick her jaw up off the floor.

_"Our guy today is a fellow bounty hunter gone bad." _Judy was saying as the bounty's picture came up on the screen. 

_"He must have gone really bad to be worth 50,000,000 woolongs." _Punch replied, again stating the obvious. 

"Jet Black, a formal ISSP officer and later a bounty hunter, is wanted for the rape and murder of sixteen women. He is also reportedly a suspect in the importing and exporting of a new drug that is on the streets, called Déjà vu."  

Spike turned off the television and turned to look at Faye who was still in a shock induced stupor. 

"Can you believe that? I mean, Jet, he wouldn't have anything to do with this stuff." Faye said looking over at Spike who was grabbing a jacket and slowly yet determinedly walking over to the Bebop's docking area. 

"What are you doing? Where are you going?" Faye asked jumping up from the couch and following Spike.

"What do you think I'm going to do? I'm goin' to catch Jet." Spike said as he prepared to climb into _Swordfish_. 

"You don't really believe he did those things do you?"

"I don't know. But I'm gonna find out." With that Spike climbed into his ship and prepared to take off.

Faye ran back inside the Bebop and grabbed some food to take to Ein. "Sorry boy, I can't feed this to you right now but please eat it." She stated placing the food in front of the lying dog. She grabbed a jacket and the keys to _Redtail _before taking off toward the docking area to follow Spike.  

Apparently Jet was on Mars and if anyone could find him she knew it would be Spike. After being friends with Jet for so long Faye figured that Spike would know where he would go if he were on the run. She still couldn't figure out why anyone would think that Jet would have anything to do with the murders of these women or the shipping of this new drug. 

They had been flying around for a while with no sign of Jet. They were coming up on the docks now, "Ugh, if we don't find him soon… I need to get some gas and I need to go to work in the morning-" Faye stopped complaining as she realized that _Swordfish _had taken a drastic dip. She knew that something was wrong right away. She jumped to action and looked around at the ground to try to see what ever it was that Spike had seen. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a scuffle happening and someone being drug around a corner. 

Spike and Faye landed and climbed out of their aircrafts. Spike already had his gun in his hand and had taken off at a run toward the street that the two people had turned onto.

Faye pulled out her gun and run after Spike. They turned the corner to find a large man dumping a body into the water. Faye ran toward the waters edge and looked to see where the body had been tossed. She saw a few air bubbles and dove into the water to grab the person who had been tossed in. 

Spike had the man cornered, gun aimed and ready to be fired. The man stepped into the light of one of the streetlamps and Spike could plainly see that it was Jet. "So, you have been killing these women." Spike stated tilting his head in the direction of Faye who had just pushed the limp body of a woman onto the pier and climbed out of the water.

"You know I have to take you in now old buddy." Just as Spike finished his statement Jet rushed at him planning on tackling him. Spike side-stepped and fired his gun at one of Jets legs. Jet fell to his knees and Spike hit him in the back of the head with the butt of his pistol. 

"Is she okay?" Spike called over to Faye who was trying to use what little CPR skills she had to revive the woman. 

"I don't think so. We need to get her to a hospital." Faye replied still trying to get a response out of the woman. Spike pulled out his cell phone and called for an ambulance. 

"What are we gonna do about Jet?" Faye asked quickly glancing over to the limp body lying at Spike's feet. 

"I'm gonna take him back to the _Bebop_." Spike said before beginning to drag Jet toward _Swordfish_. 

"You're gonna just leave me here with her." Faye asked looking down at the woman before her. She climbed to her feet but Spike was already turning the corner and not paying her any attention. 

The ambulance was nearing and the sirens were ringing in Faye's ears as she watched Spike fly off.  

*** 

"Spike!" Faye called out as she walked into the ship later that night (or earlier that morning since it was three o' clock by the time she was able to leave the scene of the "crime").

She walked into the living room to see Jet sitting on the couch with an ice pack on his head. "What's going on? Why isn't he handcuffed or something?" She asked turning her head to look at Spike who stood leaning against the wall.

"Things are a little more complicated than they seem." Spike replied. 

"What's so complicated? You know that woman, she's dead. That makes seventeen women that he's killed!" Faye argued pointing at the silent Jet. 

"Faye," Jet said quietly, "Let me expl-"

"You better not say 'let me explain'. I just had a women you killed die in my arms. You are worth 50,000,000 woolongs and I want that money." Faye answered threateningly. 

"Faye, do you know about that drug Déjà vu? The one that they say Jet's shipping. Do you know what it does?" Spike asked looking over at the extremely riled Faye. It gives the user an incredible high. But it also causes the user's brain to malfunction, you could say. The user has no choice but to do whatever they were told to do within the first few minutes of taking the drug. In other words it's a mind control agent." Spike finished.

"Take a look." He said while pushing the computer towards Faye.

"So you were told to kill those women? Why? And by who?" Faye asked looking over the computer screen at Jet who was sitting with his head low. 

"It was a message. To Spike." Jet stated quietly. "Apparently Vicious had a right hand man who was promised the chance to lead the syndicate if anything was to happen to him. Well, when Spike killed Vicious this guy took over and now he wants revenge. He figured if a large enough bounty was put on my head you two would come after me and kill me."

"How did he know that Spike was alive? I just found out." Faye asked quietly. This was starting to be too much for her.

"There are a lot of people working for this guy. One of his henchmen spotted Spike a few weeks ago." Jet answered. "Look, I didn't want to kill those women. I knew what I was doing, I mean I remember it all I just couldn't stop myself. I guess he figured that if all of Spike's friends were picked off he'd slowly go crazy. Like after Julia" Spike looked over at Jet with an unreadable expression on his face at hat statement.

"I just want to know one thing. Did you try to kill me?" Faye asked sitting down on the old yellow chair across from Jet.

"I was going to. They wanted me to. But I never got the chance." Jet answered quietly. It was obvious that he was ashamed of his actions, even the ones he hadn't committed.

"So, you didn't attack me today?" Faye asked trying to get all the facts straight.

"No."  

"Then who the hell did?" 

Hmmm. The questions keep coming. This is where you review… please. See you next chapter. Selena's "I Could Fall In Love With You" just came on my Launch Radio, now I have to go and cry. Don't you guys miss her too…__


	4. Breaking Points

Another chapter... Wow, I haven't updated in like 2 years... I wonder if anyone will still want to read this...

It was dark and cold, extremely cold, the kind of cold where your skin prickles and burns. A man looked at his surroundings and couldn't recognize where he was, or who he was for that matter.

"I see your finally coming to." A raspy voice stated coming from a far corner. The man looked up to see a figure coming toward him. Out of the shadows came many other figures all clad in trench coats and leather boots.

"Where am I?" The man asked, to what appeared to be the leader of the group. At the leaders behest two men walked up to the man and tried to lift him to his feet, but there was a deep uneasiness in the man that told him to fight, causing him to fall back onto the hard ground. He scurried away from the group of menacing men, pushing strands of long purple hair out of his face, and trying to figure out why he was soaking wet.

"If you'd been so adament about finishing off that bitch Faye as you are about staying on the ground maybe you wouldn't have gotten your ass kicked tonight." The leader spat at the man.

"What are you talking about? Who are you? Who the hell am I?"

"Damn, she must have knocked out all your senses. Get up off the floor and I'll make sure to explain everything to you over a hot meal. Oh, yeah and just to make things easier on you, your Gren." The leader of the gang said as he reached out a hand to Gren. Gren reached up to take the helping hand but caught a quick left hook to the chin. He fell back to the ground holding his bruised face.

"And I'm Peril. But, you can call me Sir. And, a bit of advise, next time I send you on a mission you had better complete it or I won't be so nice."

"I can't take this shit! Everything was doing just fine, now all of a sudden women are getting killed, Spike comes back from the dead, and there's some guy out there plotting to kill me!" Faye had obviously reached her breaking point. The sun was starting to creep up over the horizon and nobody had gotten any sleep. "And on top of everything else I have to go to work in two hours!"

Spike and Jet sat silently as Faye went on her tirade. They could tell that she was stressing, what with her hair all over the place and the giant bags under her eyes. Besides this Faye was different from the old Faye, if pushed to far she might really try to hurt someone.

"Um, I know that you are a little worked up, but, you actually work!" Jet asked quietly.

"Fuck you, bitch!" Faye screamed befoe storming out.

Yeah, this Faye was totally different. And the guys got there first chuckle in a long while.

please review if your out there...


End file.
